A RENOWNED professor of Geography, Akin Mabogunje, has cautioned against continued neglect in carrying out research works on the inherent climate dangers in many of the capital cities of some West African countries sited by the banks of the oceans.Mabogunje, observed that the fact that providence had prevented cases of ocean surge in such capital cities should not serve as an escaping route for continued research works on such envisaged natural disasters.The retired don from University of Ibadan while delivering an opening remarks at the Second Joint International Inter-University Conference yesterday at the University of Ilorin, said no nation or continent worth its salt should ignore the global issue on climate change.The programme was jointly bankrolled by the Unversity of Ilorin, Nigeria and University of Cape Coast (UCC) Ghana. The two universities had in July 3rd 2008 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on different areas and disciplines of mutual benefits. The first joint International Conference was held at UCC between September 27 and October 1, 2009. The theme of that conference was Culture, Science and Sustainable Development.Although the event was conceived as a yearly one, it could not hold last year due to what the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academics University of Ilorin Professor Kolade Ayorinde tagged some logistic problems. The theme for this year conference with over 50 participants from Ghana is coded Climate Change and Sustainable DevelopmentMabogunje now 79 years old said, climate change, which is the topic for this particular joint conference, has assumed a global status not only as a very privileged problem of scientific enquiries but also as a practical challenge of policy making by governments all over the world.The well known school of skeptics about the urgency of the phenomenon has been largely silenced by the cascade of extreme climatic and physical events of recent times such as the Katrina Hurricane in the United States, the Tsunamis in South East Asia and recently in Japan, the devastating tornadoes also in United state and the spate of disastrous flooding in many countries, the latest being in Northern Australia.The retired don added at the opening ceremony of the event he presided over, it could of course be claimed Africa and in particular West Africa has been providentially protected from all of these extreme events and therefore need not be overly bothered about the probability of their occurrence and be made ready to deal with the consequences of their incidence.This is particularly so when some of the resultant effects such as the thawing away and disappearance of the polar ice-caps and glaciers are so patently visible that their consequences with respect to rising sea-levels cannot be wished away. Indeed, for West Africa in particular, the significance of this exigency is the fact that our colonial masters in the past saw fit to locate most of our capital cities and metropolitan centres in the coastal areas of our countries.For him, the West Africa sub region till date has some inexplicable natural features that should call for greater concerns. He identified such not-fully-understood phenomenon as the anomalous Togo gap of relative low precipitation on the coast between Accra and Lome, and the little dry season of August in the southern rainy belt of the region.Mabogunje, while lauding the collaborative endeavours between the two universities, urge the sustainability of the development irrespective of the Vice Chancellors at the saddle just as he canvassed the inculcation of climate change and its associated global warming effect as a separate discipline in the curriculum of all the West African universities as a way of creating awareness of the devastating effects of the inherent threats to life.The Vice Cahncellor of the University of Ilorin Prof. Ishiaq Oloyede, while savouring the benefits of the partnership between the two citadels of learning said better discoveries could be perfectly made when two better heads come together.Oloyede added, though I am aware that Myrol Ebell, who directs the Centre for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Eterprise Institute in the United states said that the claims that global warming/climate change would worsen malaria and hurricanes would become more frequent remain unproven with other experts expressing similar reservations, it is appropriate that we get ready by giving it all necessary attention because it is better we do so.Delivering a Key note address at the event former Deputy Director General, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Ghana, Professor Alfred Oteng-Yeboah said the atmospheric temperature globally had in the last few years assumed a very frightening level with a caution on the need to be prepared for any untoward climatic change.
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